The Middle East: 117–106 BCE

Wudi’s Han Chinese forces arrive at Nam Viet’s Red River delta in 113 and conquer the kingdom within two years, annexing the Dong-son homeland of Tonkin to the Chinese empire.

The conquered Nam Viet, divided into nine military administrative districts, becomes the Chinese province of Giao Chi.

The empire dispatches Chinese peasant-soldiers to set up villages and build forts in the region, which the Chinese call Annam (“Pacified South”).

The southward expansion of the Han dynasty comprises a series of military campaigns and expeditions in what is now modern southern China and northern Vietnam.

Military expansion to the south had begun under the previous Qin dynasty and continues during the Han.

Campaigns have dispatched against the Yue tribes, leading to the annexation of Minyue by the Han in 135 BCE and 111 BCE, Nanyue in 111 BCE, and Dian in 109 BCE.

To the northeast, a campaign launched by the Han empire against Wiman Joseon of the Gojoseon kingdom between 109 and 108 BCE and fought in the Liaodong Peninsula, Korean Peninsula, and Bohai Sea, results in the fall of Gojoseon.

The Tauri, probably a fragment of the Cimmerians, have remained a major threat to Greek power in the northern Black Sea region, although the Crimean coast had eventually come to be dominated by Greek (and subsequently Roman) colonies, notably the one at Chersonesos, Engaged in piracy against ships on the Black Sea, the Tauri mount raids from their base at Symbolon (today's Balaklava).

The Greeks of the Tauric Chersonese and the Cimmerian Bosporus (Crimea and Straits of Kerch), prosperous from the fourth century BCE, have maintained a free constitution of the Greek type and fought for their continued independence against the Scythians of southern Russia, against the native Tauri of the southern Crimea, and against the kings of Bosporus in the west.

They traded with Athens and cities on the Pontic coast in the early period and with Delos, Rhodes, and Delphi in the Hellenistic Age.

Having turned to Pontus for protection against the Scythians, the region is subsequently incorporated into the Pontic Empire of Mithridates VI.

Viewing Mithridates as a deliverer from their Scythian enemies, they gladly surrender their independence in about 110 BCE in return for the protection given to them by his armies.

The Sarmatians, who had emerged in a region of the steppe to the east of the Don River and south of the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe in the seventh century BCE, have for centuries lived in relatively peaceful coexistence with their Scythian neighbors to the west.

They spill over the Don in the third century BCE to attack the Scythians on the Pontic steppe to the north of the Black Sea: they are to dominate these territories over the next five centuries.

Like the Scythians, Sarmatians are of a Caucasoid appearance, and before the arrival of the Huns (fourth century CE) it is thought that few had Asiatic or Turco-Mongol features.

Sarmatian noblemen often reach one oint seven to one point eight meters (five-feet seven inches to five feet ten inches) as measured from skeletons, and they have sturdy bones, long hair, and beards.

The Sarmatians drive their Scythian kinsmen into the delta of the Danube and the Crimea peninsula in about the second century BCE, at which point the Tauri become subject-allies of the Scythian king Skilurus and vanish from history.

Skilurus controls the ancient trade emporium of Pontic Olbia, where he mints coins.

In order to gain advantage against Chersonesos, he allies himself with the Sarmatian tribe of Rhoxolani.

In response, Chersonesos forges an alliance with Mithridates VI of Pontus.

Skilurus dies during a war against Mithridates, a decisive conflict for supremacy in the Pontic steppe.

His son Palacus succeeds him.

Soon after his death, the Scythians are defeated by by Diophantus, general of Mithridates VI, in about 108 BCE).

Diophantus is active in Mithridates' campaigns in the Bosporan Kingdom and elsewhere around the Black Sea, although their chronology is disputed.

An inscription found during the excavations in Chersonesos glorifies Diophantus as "the first foreign invader to conquer the Scythians".

During his first Crimean expedition, he relieves the siege of Chersonesos by the Scythian king Palacus and subdues his allies, the Tauri.

He finishes this campaign at Scythian Neapolis.

During the second campaign, Diophantus checks another invasion of the Scythians, who had joined their forces with the Rhoxolanoi under Tasius.

At one point during these campaigns he establishes a stronghold at Eupatorium on the eastern shore of the Crimea.

Around 107 BCE, Mithridates dispatches Diophantes to Panticapaeum with the task of persuading the Bosporan king Paerisades V to cede his kingdom to Mithridates.

While he is in the city, the Scythians, led by a certain Saumacus, revolted and kill Paerisades, while Diophantes barely manages to escape to Chersonesos.

Back in Pontus, Diophantes rallies his forces and sails to Crimea with a large fleet.

The Scythian uprising is put down and the Bosporan kingdom is reduced to a dependency of Pontus.

Either Skilurus or his son and successor Palacus are buried in a mausoleum at Scythian Neapolis, used from about 100 BCE to about 100 CE.

The coming of the Parthians has changed Mesopotamia even less than the establishment of the Seleucid kingdom had, for as early as the middle of the second century BCE local dynasts had proclaimed their independence.

There is no evidence indicating whether the cities of Mesopotamia had surrendered piecemeal or all at once or whether they had submitted voluntarily or after fighting.

Seleucia is in any case treated better by the Parthians than it had been by the Seleucids, and the local government retains its autonomy.

Parthian troops do not occupy Seleucia but remain in a garrison site called Ctesiphon near Seleucia; it will later grow into a city and replace Seleucia as the capital.

Near East (117–106 BCE): Rise of the Himyarites and Changing Trade Dynamics

The period from 117 to 106 BCE sees significant geopolitical and economic transformations, particularly in southwestern Arabia, driven by shifts in trade routes and regional power dynamics.

The Himyarites, a prominent tribal confederacy in the region of southwestern Arabia, rise to prominence around 115 BCE, overtaking their Sabaean kin. Their ascendancy is likely facilitated by the discovery and utilization of a sea route from Egypt to India, which undermines the inland trade dominance of the Sabaean kingdom. This shift redirects economic power from traditional overland routes to coastal maritime trade, significantly reshaping the regional economic landscape.

Centered at their capital Zafar, located southwest of Yarim in what is today southern Yemen, the Himyarites inherit and build upon Sabaean language, culture, and institutions. Under Himyarite rule, cultural and political influence expands eastward toward the Persian Gulf and northward into the Arabian Desert, marking the kingdom as a dominant regional power. Zafar emerges as a celebrated urban center, renowned not only within Arabia but also recognized by Greek and Roman writers, highlighting its international significance in trade and cultural exchange.

Legacy of the Era

The era 117–106 BCE establishes the Himyarite kingdom as a major political and economic force in southwestern Arabia, altering longstanding trade networks and cultural dynamics. The Himyarite rise effectively transforms regional power balances, laying foundations that will significantly shape Arabian and broader Near Eastern geopolitics in subsequent centuries.

The Himyar, an important tribal confederacy in the Sabaean kingdom of southwestern Arabia, are concentrated in the area known as Dhu Raydan on the coast of present-day Yemen (San’a).

They are probably aided in the overthrow, in about 115 BCE, of their Sabaean kinsmen by the discovery of a sea route from Egypt to India, which deprives the inland Sabaean kingdom of its importance as a center for overland trade.

The Himyarites (classical Homeritae) inherit the Sabaean language and culture, and from their capital at Zafar, located southwest of Yarim in southern Yemen, their power will at times extend eastward as far as the Persian Gulf and northward into the Arabian Desert.

Zafar is one of the most important and celebrated towns in southern Arabia, a fact attested to not only by Arab geographers and historians but also by Greek and Roman authors.

The Cimbri, who for unknown reasons leave their original lands around the Baltic sea in the Jutland peninsula and southern Scandinavia sometime around 120–115 BCE, journey to the southeast and are soon joined by their neighbors and possible relatives the Teutons, or Teutones.

Together they defeat the Scordisci, along with the Boii, many of whom apparently join them.

They arrive on the Danube, in Noricum, home to the Roman-allied Taurisci, in 113 BCE.

The Taurisci, unable to hold back these new, powerful invaders on their own, call on Rome for aid.

The Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo leads the legions into Noricum the following year, and after making an impressive show of force, takes up a strong defensive position and demand that the Cimbri and their allies leave the province immediately.

The Cimbri initially set about complying peacefully with Rome's demands, but soon discover that Carbo has laid an ambush against them.

Infuriated by this treachery, they attack and, at the Battle of Noreia, annihilate Carbo's army, almost killing Carbo in the process.

Italy is now open to invasion, yet for some reason, the Cimbri and their allies move west over the Alps and into Gaul.

They invade the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis in 109 BCE and defeat the Roman army there under Marcus Junius Silanus.

They defeat another Roman army in this same year at the Battle of Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux) and kill its commander, the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravalla.

The Romans in 107 BCE are defeated again, this time by the Tigurini, who are allies of the Cimbri, whom they had met on their way through the Alps.